


tell me (what is the colour of love?)

by TheQueenInTheNorth



Series: kasinara soulmate aus [4]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, F/F, F/M, M/M, Soulmates, look i have 0 chill i just loves these jerks so much
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-01
Updated: 2018-05-01
Packaged: 2019-04-27 22:51:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,290
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14435850
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheQueenInTheNorth/pseuds/TheQueenInTheNorth
Summary: The first time Kasius sees colours, he is in a room filled with people. And any one of them might be his soulmate.





	tell me (what is the colour of love?)

Krenyk brought him along to the training facility, saying he should have the pick of the young soldiers to form his own personal guard. That was, of course, just another of Krenyk’s schemes to get Kasius away from his father and brother for a while.

With no children of his own and a distaste for Garron’s ways of attempting to get the weakness out of his youngest, the General had taken a keen interest in Kasius’ wellbeing. At times it felt like pity, but mostly Kasius felt only fondness towards the man’s actions.

And while not much of a fighter himself, Kasius did have a mind for military strategies, perhaps more so than his brother, even if neither Faulnak nor Garron would ever admit such a thing.

He was confident his input would not be completely useless to Krenyk, even if not truly needed. He entered the room at Krenyk’s side, gaze drifting across the recruits lined up before them.

For a moment Kasius thought there was something wrong with his eyes. Then he realised what this must be - colours. He could see colours.

His face remained impassive, yet his heart was suddenly in his throat. Of course he would have the bad luck of finding his soulmate in a room filled with dozens of strangers.

He tried to place the second the colours had started bleeding into his vision, he tried to find his own shock in one of the soldiers’ faces. Both attempts were fruitless.

* * *

 

He watched the soldiers carefully, more for their reactions to him than for their skills, though assessing those all the same. The novelty of the colours all around him made it rather hard to concentrate.

There was one soldier who got flustered every time Kasius so much as glanced at him. Whether it was simply because of his station or because he, too, had had his world suddenly turned into a blaze of colours he could not say. He smiled at him, and the soldier’s cheeks flushed. Soulmate or no, Kasius thought he’d take him back to court either way.

Another soldier who stumbled so much that Kasius could never justify a spot on his guard, even if he wondered if their nerves were caused by the knowledge of their soulmate being so close.

And then there was the one that took down her fellows with ease, who held his gaze with utterly impassive countenance. Her eyes were the colour of the pin on Krenyk’s lapel, the one Kasius knew to be made of gold. Golden eyes that seemed to see right into his mind. He thought they might be his favourite colour even if he had had seen colours his whole life already.

He picked Sinara first, the most skilled of all those present, golden eyes gleaming with pride. Two others, Azale and Iundo, and only then he allowed himself to add Darillion to the guard; he once again blushed quite prettily.

If the last choice surprised him, Krenyk did not mention it.

* * *

 

Kasius liked seeing colours, liked attaching shades to the names he had known without any context before.

Darillion’s eyes were green, the lovebites he left on his skin were a deep purple.

Azale liked painting her lips a stunning vermillion. He only took note because there were smudges of it on Sinara’s collar more than once.

Her golden eyes twinkled with amusement every time she caught him staring.

* * *

 

He thought to ask Darillion whether his world was still grey half a hundred times, yet never could quite make himself do it. He indulged in the notion that he could see it too, that their lives had become so full of colour at the same time.

“Pass me that blue bottle, will you?”he asked one day, not quite the question he wanted to utter, but not quite nothing either.

Darillion stared at him, completely stunned. It was Sinara who handed him the bottle in question.

“What?”she demanded when he raised a questioning eyebrow at her, his mouth suddenly too dry to speak. “You were looking at that one. Isn’t it the right one?”

He was almost certain he hadn’t so much as glanced at it.

Almost.

* * *

 

He watched her pick up her clothes, wondering, as he always did, if he ought to ask her to stay.

He never had to ask Darillion to stay.

He wondered whether Azale had to ask. He knew Sinara didn’t leave her like this, she’d answered Azale’s communicator in the mornings often enough for him to be certain of that.

He never asked. Questions had a habit of coming with answers you didn’t like.

Once, he had asked Azale if she could see colours, considering her the safest one of his guard to ask. She had only laughed, and he had been none the wiser.

* * *

 

His personal guard had shrunk down to just two. Iundo had been made head of the palace guard at his recommendation, and Azale was put in charge of training recruits, the path to one day taking up Krenyk’s post. The general had approached Kasius about giving the position to Sinara at first.

He had told him to pick Azale instead, unwilling to part with Sinara, unwilling to have her hearing of the opportunity and running the risk of her accepting. Which, perhaps, had been selfish. But he was a selfish person.

Darillion and Sinara got along well; if either of them took exception to the times the other spent in Kasius’ bed, they did not let it affect their relationship.

So having them in a heated argument was new. Or, well, Darillion was angry. Sinara appeared more vaguely annoyed.

“How could you even say such a thing?”Darillion demanded. “He’s your prince, you should show him the respect he deserves.”

“Sinara’s right,”Kasius said with a heavy sigh. The mission Father was sending him on was as good as a death sentence and they all knew it. “The battlefield is not my place.”

* * *

 

They had almost made it off the battlefield when they found Darillion blocking their path.

“What did you do?”he said, eyes wide in horror.”Sinara, what did you do?”

“It’s alright,”Kasius appeased. He was still leaning heavily on Sinara and he could feel her shift her stance, a silent question. He squeezed her arm to tell her to wait. “She was helping me -”

“She killed your generals,”Darillion interrupted.

Kasius nodded. “They were preventing me from fleeing the battlefield.”

He was willing Darillion to understand, finally. Sinara had understood. Why couldn’t he?

“You ought to go back.” He was disappointed, of all things. Kasius felt the insane urge to laugh. Darillion stepped closer to them. “We all should go back.”

“He’s hurt,”Sinara said. There was ice in her voice. There was a plea in her voice. She wanted to do this as little as Kasius wanted to command it.

“So he drinks the Odium.” Darillion held up his own bottle. “We drink the Odium, and we die with honour.”

Sinara looked at Kasius.

He nodded.

* * *

 

Sinara brought him onto the first ship they came across, setting the autopilot to return them to Hala before finding a med kit.

He let her attend to his wounds without complaint, watching her hands become stained with his blood. The colours were still there clear as day. They disappeared again when your soulmate died, or so Kasius had heard. He had thought he’d given up the notion it may have been Darillion years ago; it seemed he had not quite. An odd mix of disappointment and relief was warring in his mind.

The vivid blood already staining the pure white of the bandage was taunting him.

“I’ll have to stitch it up afterall,”Sinara said. Her voice was as even as ever yet he could have sworn her hands were shaking. Only his imagination, of course. He was feeling quite lightheaded.

“You’re crying.” It was more question than statement. Surely his mind was playing tricks on him, blood loss combined with the painkiller. Sinara only looked up from her work for a split second. “So are you.”

He touched his cheek, bringing his fingertips away damp. “So I am.”

* * *

 

She helped him onto the bed once she was sure all she could now do was make sure he got some rest. As she was about to turn away, he grabbed her wrist, surprisingly adamantly considering he was barely even conscious anymore.

“Stay,”he implored. His grip loosened as soon as she sat down on the edge of the bed; he allowed the exhaustion to overcome him once she heeded his request.

Sinara watched him sleep, the worry still a cold chill in her bones. She didn’t dare close her eyes, afraid of finding the world void of colours when she opened them again.

As the blood had flowed from Kasius’ wound, so had the colours from her vision.

They had grown slowly stronger again as she had patched up the nasty cut across his side, and now were as bright as usual. She was still sure the world would crash back into black and white if she so much as blinked too long.

She was being stupid, she told herself to no avail. She had ignored the implications of the colours for years now. It shouldn’t suddenly matter simply because she had almost lost them. Lost _him_.

She pushed away the thought and lowered herself down next to him, careful not to touch his injured side. With her head resting against his chest and hearing his heart beat a steady, comforting rhythm, she managed to fall asleep.

* * *

 

Sinara woke to the sound of footsteps, not quick enough to untangle herself from Kasius before their ship was boarded. They had slept all the way to Hala.

Iundo’s face betrayed no emotion. His eyes may have held some sort of pity.

“Kasius needs a doctor,”Sinara said, more for the sake of saying something than real necessity. The pins on Iundo’s collar were all perfectly colourful.

He nodded, then sighed. “Garron’s not happy.”

An understatement if she’d ever heard one.

* * *

 

Exile had brought at least one positive: Sinara had let go of her habit of returning to her own bed to sleep.

Apparently all it had taken was for him to ask her to stay one time. Had he known it would be that easy, he would have done so years ago.

It almost made him think he could just ask her whether she could see colours and she might actually tell him.

But he didn’t.

He had been wrong about Darillion. To be wrong about Sinara too would be more than he could bare.

* * *

 

Sinara was looking at Faulnak’s body with something Kasius could only describe as mild curiosity. “Do you think there’s someone out there who knows? Someone whose world just snapped back to achromatic?”

“Maybe.” He couldn’t imagine his brother having enough of a soul to have a soulmate, but she had never broached the subject of soulmates before, and he wasn’t about to discourage her. “So you believe it’s all true?”

She looked at him for a long time. He did not dare to speak.

“Maybe,”she finally said, moving closer to him. “Do you?”

He would have told her then, had the soldier not entered to inform them the humans were on the verge of rebellion.

* * *

 

The colour was slowly draining from his vision, everything becoming more muted.

 _Sinara_ , he thought, perhaps stupidly. In all the years they had spent together she had never confirmed she could even see colours at all, let alone that they had first appeared the same moment they had for him. But if there was even the slightest chance…

“We have to get to their ship, right now.” He was already turning to head to the launch pad by the time any of the soldiers reacted,”But sir, the Lighthouse -”

“Fuck the Lighthouse,”he spat without so much as breaking his stride. The colours were fading faster and faster; he kept glancing at his own shaking hands to make sure there was still anything other than nuances of grey in the world

By the time he reached her, the colours were so dull they might as well not have been there at all. But her blood was still a vivid splash against her chest, somehow both terrifying and reassuring.

She was still breathing, even if only just.

* * *

 

“Kasius?” Her voice was weak and she was terribly pale; she did not manage to sit up. She scowled at that but settled for reaching out for his hand. She did not have to ask what had happened to the Lighthouse. That she was alive was proof enough he had abandoned his post yet again. For her, this time, rather than with her help.

“Sinara,”he said, voice breaking.”I thought -” He faltered, unable to bring himself to even say it.”I’m glad you are alright.”

He held her hand with both of his as if it were his lifeline.

“Thank you.” Her tongue darted out to wet her lips nervously. She ought to tell him, finally. She had shared his bed many times and yet it was here, in this austere hospital room, with them barely touching at all, that she found the need to have him know near overwhelming. “I was sure I was going to die.” He made a soft, distressed noise, not wanting to hear anything of the sort, but she continued before her nerves could get the better of her.”You know what I was thinking just before I fell unconscious?”

She swallowed hard, forcing herself to hold his gaze.”I was thinking how I’d never told you my favourite colour. Ice blue. Like your eyes.”


End file.
